Performance improvement plan (PIP)
A performance improvement plan, or PIP, is a formal, time-bound document an employer gives an employee whose work is falling short of expectations. It sets out the specific gaps, the improvement required, the support on offer, the review dates, and what happens if nothing changes. Used properly it is a coaching tool; it is also the employer's written record.
What goes into one
A plan that holds up is specific about four things: the gap, the target, the support, and the dates.
Gaps are described with dated examples of work, not character labels; "bad attitude" is not something anyone can fix. Targets follow from those examples and sit inside the employee's control. Support is what separates a plan from a warning, and it costs the manager something: training, shadowing, reallocated work, standing time in the diary.
Practitioner guidance adds the housekeeping: state the consequence if nothing improves, reserve the right to extend the period if the employee takes leave, and have them sign to confirm receipt, noting that the plan stands even if they refuse to sign.
Vague against usable
The same plan, written twice.
| What the plan names | Vague | Usable |
|---|---|---|
| The gap | "Communication needs work" | "Three of five client reports went out late in July" |
| The target | "Improve reliability" | "All eight monthly reports on the agreed date for 60 days" |
| The support | Left blank | "Weekly 30-minute planning session with the team lead" |
| The review | "We'll check in" | "Fridays at 10:00, written summary the same day" |
Everything on the right can be answered yes or no at the end. Nothing on the left can, which is how plans end in arguments.
How long a plan runs
Duration is the employer's choice, not something a rulebook sets. Practitioner guidance published by SHRM puts the floor at 30 days and calls 60 or 90 days more customary. Take the window from the work: on a monthly reporting cycle, change shows in the output only after two cycles.
The check-in cadence
The same guidance recommends check-ins weekly or every two weeks, with a written summary of each meeting given to the employee. It keeps the employee clear on where they stand while there is still time to act, and leaves a record the final review has to match.
What a PIP is not
- Not a legal requirement. The material behind this page is American, where employment is largely at will and a plan is a choice. Rules elsewhere differ; none of this is legal advice.
- Not a firing with a delay built in. That reputation is earned by badly run plans; the counter-argument in the same guidance is that a properly drafted one keeps good employees.
- Not a legal shield. Documentation helps an employer defend a claim later. It does not decide one.
- Not a fix for problems the employee does not control. An unclear brief or a broken process is a management problem wearing a plan's clothes.
How this shows up in Growee
Growee has no PIP template, no PIP status and nothing that enforces a 30, 60 or 90-day window; evaluations carry no status field at all. Both halves of a plan still have a home, on one employee profile.
- The plan is a goal. A name, a description, a due date, a category and a priority, a milestone checklist you tick off, a progress bar, a status of not started, in progress or completed, and a file. Goals are gated on the manage-goals permission, which the Admin, Manager and HR roles carry by default, so anyone holding it sees every employee's goals — worth knowing before a sensitive plan goes in one.
- The check-ins are evaluations. A dated record with named evaluators, notes, a file, a link to an external document, and the date of the next one. Set a notify-on date and Growee emails the reminder to the employee and the named evaluators.
- Both sit on the employee profile, so the objective and the record of every conversation about it stay together. Evaluations are gated on the manage-evaluations permission, which the Admin and Manager roles carry by default: those two see every employee's evaluations, and everyone else, the HR role included, sees only their own.
Growee holds the objective, the dates and the trail of reviews: goals and OKRs for the first half, evaluations for the second.
Sources
Durations and cadences here come from practitioner guidance published by SHRM, not from law or a standard, and that guidance is written for the US at-will context. Nothing on this page is legal advice. Growee behaviour is described as of August 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a performance improvement plan be?
There is no rule to follow. Practitioner guidance published by SHRM puts 30 days as the floor and calls 60 or 90 days more customary. Match the window to the work: two full cycles of what you are measuring, and no longer.
Does a PIP mean I am about to be fired?
Not by definition. A Wall Street Journal piece quoted by SHRM called plans the most hated way of firing someone. The employment lawyer SHRM quotes argues the opposite case: a properly drafted plan says what has to change and gives someone time to do it.
Is a PIP required before termination?
Not in the US material behind this page, where employment is largely at will and a plan is a practice employers choose rather than a step the law imposes. Rules differ by country; nothing here is legal advice.
Does Growee have a PIP template?
No. There is no PIP feature, template or status field. Teams build the plan as a goal, with a due date, a milestone checklist and a progress status, and record each review as a dated evaluation on the same profile. See goals and OKRs.